By Joachim Twino
The much-anticipated e-government excellence awards night for this year finally came and passed with numerous category winners getting prized at a glamorous ceremony regulator NITA-Uganda organized at Speke Resort Munyonyo.

Preceded by an exhibition at Garden City rooftop to enable government MDAs to showcase what they have done to deepen electronic service delivery, the awards recognize entities that have automated their processes in a manner that complies with regulatory standards prescribed by NITA-U.

Presiding the awards night was Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda who was accompanied by ICT Minister Frank Tumwebaze and his Investments/Privatization counterpart Evelyn Anite who remarkably was excited seeing UIA, which is one of the entities under her docket, excel at the awards night.

THE WINNERS
Under the Citizens Choice Award category, for which citizens vote their best e-services provider from among the 10 best-rated agencies via (www.ecitizens.go.ug), URA emerged winner because of the impact it’s e-tax innovation continues to have on access to efficient service delivery among the tax-paying public.

Richard Byarugaba’s NSSF emerged government entity of the year for its unrivalled compliance to the GoU-set IT standards while doing e-services delivery. The NITA recognition simply means NSSF is the most updated government institution when it comes to cyber security, ICT approval N7 processes and acquisition of secure software and hardware.

The e-citie platform, which improved KCCA operations and contributed to Uganda’s increased positive online visibility and improved global rating in the “ease of doing business report,” is the reason KCCA walked away with an additional award besides the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the year award that was won by their head management systems Mr. Martin Sekaja. He was found to be exemplary in delivery of services in an automated way. He has also championed implementation of national ICT-related standards and guidance among KCCA stakeholder institutions.

Other award winners included Finance Ministry for their IFMIS innovation hosting over 250 entities; Local Government Ministry for it’s eLogRev automating revenue collection in a select municipalities; URSB for its deeply automated one stop web-based application enabling clients to access all business registration-related info online; UNEB for its e-registration & exam results management system; Gender ministry for automating labor externalization services; Makerere University; UNBS and DPP.

There was also UNRA which walked away with an award because of its PDU e-transit ladder which has enhanced service delivery.

UIA carried the day emerging best entity under the trade & tourism sector category. URA also took the best exhibitor award because of the way their booth was branded and staffed throughout the Garden City rooftop event.

Whereas NMS dominated the health sector for its highly impactful “smart care” innovation, Mbarara was rated the most compliant local government when it comes to automating service delivery.











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